Midtown disaster needs to come down

With its defective fašade and dank interior, this downtown monstrosity across from City Hall is Worcester's answer to a third-world shopping experience.

"It was once beautiful, and the floors were always clean," claimed Matos Jorge, a 68-year-old tailor who has rented space at the mall for 14 years. "It's different now."

That's putting it mildly. In 2009, a Telegram & Gazette reporter noted rather genteelly that the mall "is not considered attractive," which is like saying Whitey Bulger is not considered nice.

If the Midtown Mall could talk, it would beg to be put out of its misery. Now, we have just the man to do it. Mr. City Manager, tear down this mall!

As noted in a story today by Shaun Sutner, local officials are threatening to seize the 53,000-square-foot building by eminent domain, and I can't imagine a better outcome than a hostile takeover. Yet defenders of this persistent eyesore note that many of the businesses are owned by immigrants, and they ask where these poor merchants would go if the mall ceased to exist.

Answer: Somewhere else.

I don't mean to be harsh here, but Worcester is the second-largest city in New England. We're taking encouraging steps to upgrade the downtown, and the last thing we need is a post-apocalyptic atrocity smack in the center of it.

"It doesn't exactly look like a galleria," acknowledged merchant Alex Shtudiner, who runs Laptop & PC Repair, where you can buy an old laptop for 80 bucks. "The mall has a bad reputation, and I don't think anyone wants to upgrade it. I think people want to tear it down and run a street right through it."

Well, we've done it before, with a different mall. And not much has changed at this one since the city threatened court action against owner Dean Marcus in 2001 for failing to secure the crumbling fašade, which in some places was reportedly held together with chicken wire.

Today, the fašade remains ramshackle. A sign on the outside for one of several makeshift "churches" on the lower floor boasts this nonsensical message: "We are Winning by the Supernatural." Inside the century-old building, the escalators are broken, paint peels and a leaky hose drips water into a dirty bucket. At a photo shop where you can get a family portrait for 10 bucks, the missing proprietor posted a sign: "Outside Smoking."

Not all the merchants are as laid back about business. Miguel Calderon, 28, rents two small storefronts that sell DVDs and clothes. Last year, Worcester police raided his "Music Fashion" store and seized 81 grams of heroin, along with 25 more bags on his person, according to police. They also found electronic scales and other drug paraphernalia.

He was charged with trafficking heroin and ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, but the DVD business must be booming, because he was back in his store last Friday. His case is pending.

"Business is slow, but you can always sell stuff," he said, when asked how he was faring at the Midtown Mall.

Shtudiner, the computer merchant, acknowledged that he, too, faces charges, for receiving stolen property at his store. He also told me that he no longer loans out his key to the mall's men's room.

"A couple weeks ago I gave it to someone, and a half hour later he was passed out under the sink with a needle in his arm," he said.

Debauchery for sale, within spitting distance of City Hall.

Marcus has reportedly rejected offers over the years for this pigsty. Now, with downtown on the move and the prospect of eminent domain on the table, no one should blame the city if it finally makes him an offer he can't refuse.